Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a term coined to refer to devices that have wireless connectivity and that users carry with them into a variety of networking environments. One such networking environment is a wireless local area network, i.e., a Wi-Fi® networking environment. Thus, a BYOD can also be considered a Wi-Fi client, simply referred to herein as a wireless client device.
In general, BYOD devices are battery-powered and therefore try to conserve energy in order to extend battery life. Consequently, probing algorithms have become more complex, pushing most BYODs to probe only when needed, such as when the BYOD detects that the received signal from its serving wireless access point is weak or drops dramatically (indicating either movement or being at edge of the cell, or both).